7.28.2016

~Happy Thursday MTG peeps,Just a heads up that the staff here at MTG Realm is taking a week-long summer vacation break next week, and do not expect to post anything as cool as one may see on Magic: the Traveling. We will be in the wilds of the Bruce Peninsula here in Canada-Land and unlikely (unless we head into the port town of Tobermory, completely free of WiFi. This means we won't be able to (1) follow any possible Conspiracy previews - very sad, or (2) catch any American political news (thanks be to the Maker).For today's post, we are showcasing some of the cooler content on MTG Realm on Tumblr - let's go !~Photoset July 28, 2016 64 notes

Magic: the Gathering - Eldritch Moon PendantsReRoll Games, located in Navan, County Meath, Ireland had these lovely pendants for prize swag at the PreRelease events. Kudos to store owner Tony Murphy (@platinumflux), who is incredibly crafty.~Photoset July 28, 2016 31 notes

Magic: the Gathering - Cannot Be Unseen• Rolling through some potential cards for Modern U/W skies - in German. • Looking at ‘Rattlechains’ which has the German name ‘ Kettenrassler ’.• Now completely unable to not think of a Mexican Wrestler Cat …* LUCHA LIBRE GATOS ! ! *~Photoset July 28, 2016 37 notes

Ultra Pro: New Dice Products and AccessoriesD6, 12 Dice Set, WhiteThis set of twelve 6-sided 15mm dice is perfect for a wide range of table-top games and a must have every-day item. The large numbers in black make these easy to read from anywhere on the table.

Jumbo D20 Plush DiceBring this novelty jumbo D20 dice plush home to add some geek chic to your living room! This 10" diameter plush features embroidered sequential number layout and soft premium fabric shell. Each panel is reinforced with felt backing to help maintain shape. Perfect gift for the adult gamer rolling for crit, kids to have some fun while learning math or that ambitious toddler rolling for luck!~Photoset July 27, 2016 278 notes

Magic: the Gathering - DécorImgurian user causton submitted this serious Martha Stewart interior decorating upgrade recently after some room cleaning. Long time MTG gamer had an extra 777 random commons which was used in this lovely wall treatment.~If you are bored or have some time to kill, MTG Realm on Tumblr has a metric ton (we've weighed the content) for you to scroll through. ~

7.27.2016

~Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,A sort of bits 'n' bobs for the lot of you today. First Magic: the Gathering tidbit is some rather exciting details of the fall's Penny Arcade Expo / PAX West in Seattle, which we will all will have to wait until September for. WotC staffers are back again with a variety of rather cool events / panels / programs including payload of Kaladesh previews.

Of interest is a 'street fair', whatever that may be, being held on the street (of all places), just outside the Paramount Theater. Colour us intrigued - we imagine a line of stalls, hawkers, entertainers all in a sort of exotic Kaladesh market theme thingy. There is to be a Kaladesh World Building Panel, a Kaladesh Mechanics Panel and a number of other events. If you've been reading MTG Realm for any time, you will know that we are huge fans of Panels - especially ones that are live-streamed.Next item up - Magic Story.Ken Troop delivered a great short in the continuing Innistrad / Eldritch Moon storyline arc. Today's story, titled 'The Promised End', was entertaining and completely engaging. The twist at the end of the story (involving the discourse between Jace and Tamiyo) was not expected, and like any good television mini-series, had a measure of cliff-hanger to it. Looking forward to the next magic story !

In other news, the gang here at MTG Realm are choosing our 60-card weapons carefully for the next several months of metagame. The previous season's best decklist was green / white tokens, but going forward, indications are that Bant Company is the monster to beat. Additions from Eldritch Moon such as Spell Queller will make this build the most popular list.~

7.25.2016

~Happy Monday MTG peeps,The dust has settled on the weekend's StarCityGames Open Tournament in Columbus, Ohio and the results are in as to how the newest set of Magic: the Gathering, Eldritch Moon has impacted standard format. From the 120 decklists going forward on Sunday, it appears that although there is still a measure of variation required for a healthy format, Bant Company was a clear winner as shown below in the top eight deck archetypes.Bant Company – 34U/W Spirits – 18Bant Humans – 10W/R Humans – 7B/W Control – 6U/R Eldrazi – 4G/B Delirium – 4G/W Tokens – 3

The best card in standard appears to the anchor of the Bant Company decklist, Collected Company. This card got a lot better with the addition of Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Spell Queller which provides a volume of control in this list. Thalia slows down your opponent a titch while Spell Queller can now exile key components such as Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, members of last season's strong list G/W Tokens. Here are the top 16 finalists for the SCG tournament in Columbus.Bant Company1stDevin KoepkeSultai Control2ndAli AintraziBant Company3rdKyle BoggemesG/W Tokens4thEric RillBant Company5thDan JessupG/R Goggles6thMatthew VoltzB/G Seasons Past7thKasey WaltonB/W Angel Control8thRonnie RitnerG/W Tokens9thAndrew BoswellBant Company10thTom ManeyG/W Tokens11thChris RobinsonW/R Humans12thTom RossU/W Spirits13thJeff HooglandBant Company14thJack FogleW/R Humans15thTodd AndersonBant Company16thChris AndersenGiven the new powerful cards such as Mausoleum Wander (buff and instant / sorcery counter), Selfless Wanderer (saving your bacon from a board-wipe) and Spell Queller (jack of all trades remoal) we were expecting to see a strong presence in the top 8 of U/W Spirits. These lists did do decent going forward to day two, just not quite across the finish line, which indicates to us that perhaps fine-tuning against Bant Company may be all that is needed. The format is still very young and what is certain is the evolution of strategies.~

7.23.2016

The the newest Magic: the Gathering set, Eldritch Moon, now joining standard format, fans are now looking to see just what sort of an impact this will have with the first big tournament.

This weekend, Columbus hosts the StarCityGames Open Weekend, where many will attend but only a few will prevail to shape the evolution of standard format over the next months. Here at MTG Realm, the current decklists of our playgroup will be modified every so slightly with new Eldritch Moon cards but no big changes are anticipated just for the moment. With each new standard season, we look to the largest card shop in Japan, Hareruya (@hareruyaEnglish), and the wildly popular suggestions of #KenjiWayfinder as a way to peer through a crystal ball into the potential future of standard constructed. Undoubtedly, the tournament in Columbus taking place right now as we write the article will have a few of these lists on the game tables.

The proposed decklists also serve as a sounding board of sorts to determine whether similar ideas we've spawned are all that off the mark. Anywhoos, here is the offerings provided -

Deck1 "Deploy the Gatewatch"

Deck 2 "Spirit Company" (shown below)

Deck 3 "Splendid Reclamation"

Deck 4 "Emerge Green"

Deck 5 "UB Zombie"

Deck 6 "Eldritch Evolution"

Deck 7 "UR Puzzle"

Deck 8 "Mono Black Vampire" (shown below)

Deck 9 "Naya Legends"

Deck 10 "RG Token"

Deck 11 "Jeskai Moon"

Deck 12 "GW Stitcher's Graft"

Deck 13 "Abzan Delirium"

Previously printed cards such as Rattlechains, Reflection Mage, and Collected Company support an essentially tribal spirits list - love this list. We've had restricted ourselves to U/W and think the green splash for CoCo and Tamiyo Field Researcher well worth the third colour.

A handful of skeletons and vampires take a supporting role in this build which is all about churning out a massive volume of zombie tokens. The MVP here is Liliana, the Last Hope, whose ultimate is a game-changer.

7.22.2016

As it is Friday - and - the official release date of the newest Magic: the Gathering set, Eldritch Moon, we suggest you make tracks down to your local gaming store. The launch promo is the shiny alternate-art Identity Thief. If you happen to find yourself in Central Ontario, pop by our fav gaming store, OMG! Games, in Barrie.

As is our custom here at MTG Realm, we've picked up a Eldritch Moon Fat Pack and provide this video of its dissection for you now -

7.21.2016

Tonight at midnight, the newest Magic: the Gathering set, Eldrtich Moon finally goes on sale. Although some large 'big box' store chains may have ignored the 'street date' by a day or two, a large number of local gaming stores are open late after midnight to run booster drafts or just sell new product. We'll be popping by our local gaming store, OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario to pick up our customary Fat Pack and perhaps a few singles and hopefully scrap together a list for tomorrow's Eldritch Moon Launch for Friday Night Magic. Participating stores with have that lovely Identity Thief launch promo for gamers.Anywhoos, on to today's miscellaneous round-up of Magic: the Gathering related notes -First up - Eldritch Moon / is available now on Xbox One, iOS, and PC via Steam in a new update. Magic Duels gamers can now play through the conclusion of the Innistrad story in a new campaign, and collect over 120 new cards for your favorite decks. Take on the darkness with eldritch abominations, shambling zombies, and the return of the Gatewatch

Second / finally,We missed a post to MTG Realm yesterday. Wednesdays we usually talk about that day's Magic short story posted to the mothersite. The story, titled 'Battle of Thraben', penned by Nik Davidson, sets the stage for the final showdown between the 'Gatewatch' Planeswalkers and was pretty damn awesome.

7.19.2016

~Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) 2016 is being held this year from 21 to 24 July. This four day event held at the San Diego Convention Center is pretty much the largest pop culture convention of its kind in the world. In years past, Wizards of the Coast would host a well-attended Magic panel which featured previews of the annual Commander series and the upcoming fall (October) Magic: the Gathering set. Although it does not appear at the moment that WotC will be holding their regular MTG panel, they will be at the Hasbro Booth (#3213) and there are indeed some other things planned (see this post on the mothersite).What will definitely be back for Comic-Con are Magic: the Gathering SDCC promo cards. As in previous years, a limited edition collection of Planeswalker cards are offered for sale. The limited supply means that these promo cards become collector’s items immediately and although the retail price is expected to be around $120, one can expect these promo sets to be worth significantly more than that when the weekend is over. Sticking with the whole Liliana / Zombie horde theme forming part of the Eldritch Moon prerelease, WotC staffer Blake Rasmussen revealed a witty take on the Gatewatch crew all depicted as Zombies - well, except for Liliana who has stayed true to her necromancer roots.All SDCC Promo cards are illustrated by Eric Deschamps

7.17.2016

On Friday, we took in a Friday Night Magic Event over at our local gaming store, OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario. Our mon-white Humans decklist did well to take 3rd spot and we were quite prepared to wait an hour to participate in the midnight prerelease of Eldritch Moon but needed our beauty sleep as we got up at a terribly early hour that morning. So we came back on Saturday.

Grab some pop-korn - Here is a short 5-minute video of the Prerelease -

First round was a 'bye', which was OK but we would rather be playing with the new cardboard. The next rounds were all lost tragically. There was some nice flashy stuff in black, but just not quite enough support in that coulour, so in the end we went blue / white which had some flyers and control.What was doing great at your local prerelease ?

7.13.2016

~Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,It is almost upon us - Eldritch Moon PreRelease events coming to a local gaming store near you. We will be partaking in the excitement at our local store, OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario, who will start at midnight on Friday and run events throughout the entire weekend. While playing this weekend, don't forget to protect your new cardboard awesomeness with Ultra PRO sleeves, boxesand playmats - remember, dragging a new chase rare across a rough game table is like ten-times worse than listening to someone scratch a chalkboard (if you know what those are).Anywhoos, it is a 'big news' day today, with both items coming from the mothersite. James Wyatt posts this weeks very well written Magic Story 'Saint Traft and the Flight of Nightmares', which left us breathless - no, not because we are asthmatic, but because it was a dramatic action cliff-hanger of a story. The other big news item is from WotC staffer Blake R with the Eldritch Moon Intro Pack decklists. We are happy to say that we here at MTG Realm posted this Eldritch Moon spoiler yesterday on our Tumblr, where we revealed the deck colours and names.

Magic: the Gathering - Eldritch Moon Intro PacksWhat’s in the Box?• Ready-to-play 60-card deck featuring a foil premium card• 2 Eldritch Moon 15-card booster packs• Strategy Insert• Magic learn-to-play guideNote that this will be the last MTG set for Intro Packs as WotC moves to another set / introductory product called 'Planeswalker Decks' for the next set, 'Kaladesh'.~

7.11.2016

~Happy Monday MTG peeps,As you are very much likely aware, all the new Eldritch Moon cards were previewed on Friday. This meant that Magic: the Gathering fans on the most part are talking about how this set may fare across a number of formats. Not here at MTG Realm today. We now have the full list of previewed Eldrtich Moon cards so we want to talk about the creature tokens (and emblems) that spell from the new set generate.

Why? As it happens, there is always (and we do we mean always) one person from the MTG Realm playgroup rocking a token-themed decklist. In standard constructed, Second Harvest is still available to help fill the game table with tokens. For modern, there are a number of other helpful cards such as Intangible Virtue. You get the idea.Anywhoos, here is the summary of all new tokens and the Eldritch Moon cards which create them - The Eldritch Moon set features 8 tokens and 2 emblems and contains 5 additional Shadows over Innistrad tokens named on Eldritch Moon cards. There are a total of 29 cards in Eldritch Moon which create tokens or emblems.

7.08.2016

~Happy Friday MTG peeps,All new Magic: the Gathering cards for the upcoming set Eldritch Moon is now up on the mothersite - linky over here. If today is Friday 8th, we want to know why you are here at MTG Realm and not rolling through all the new cardboard hotness. Since you are here, you've come to the right place - that is, you've come to the right place for an MTG Art Fight. Apologies, but this graphic of Ed Norton in Fight Club and artist Bob Ross may not quite represent what we're doing just right now . . .

Here is the round-up of all reprints in the new Eldritch Moon set. Do you have a preference ? Would you pull out the older original card over the new one. In one case, it is the same artist with a modification to better fit within the updated storyline (example - Dave Kendall's Prey Upon), while in another case, it's the same art (Wayne Reynolds' Hamlet Captain) with updated flavor text - so perhaps not really an art fight. Here they are -

Convolute

Ravnica: City of Guilds - Dany Orizio

Eldrtich Moon - Viktor Titov

Rise from the Grave

Commander 2015 - Vance Kovacs

Eldrtich Moon - Kieran Yanner

Prey Upon

Innistrad - Dave Kendall

Eldrtich Moon - Dave Kendall

Murder

Magic 2013 - Allen Williams

Eldrtich Moon - Tyler Jacobson

Terrarion

Ravnica: City of Guilds - Luca Zontini

Eldrtich Moon - Titus Lunter

Turn Aside

Scars of Mirrodin - Shelly Wan

Eldrtich Moon - Jaime Jones

Hamlet Captain - Wayne Reynolds

Same illustration for Innistrad and Eldrtich Moon, just different flavor text.

7.07.2016

~Happy Thursday MTG peeps,If you follow Hoops and Yoyo, it's 'Second Guess Thursday' but there is no second guessing that official Eldritch Moon previews are winding down quite quickly. We now have approximately 118 of 205 Magic: the Gathering cards revealed for the new set, with the remaining expected to be posted to the mothersite tomorrow. Speaking of which, WotC Blake posted all the Eldritch Moon Tokens and Promo Cards in this article today. As is our custom here at MTG Realm, we will provide another post with all the tokens along with the particular spell which generated said token for easy reference.

Anywhoos, let us get on to today's new Eldritch Moon spoilers and previews collected from around the 'net. Today's offering (Heron's Grace Champion) has us contemplating going with a green / white tribal humans decklist as our very first build after the official release on July 22nd, although we have a feeling that we will want to try to go with a zombie theme for the pre-release event on July 16th.

Unofficial English translations - Collective Forces, 1WWSorcery, RareEscalate: Tap an untapped creature you control • Destroy target creature with power 4 or greater • Destroy target enchantment • Put a +1/+1 counters on each creature target player controls Sigarda's Aid, WEnchantment, RateYou may cast Aura and Equipment spells as though they had flash.Whenever an Equipment enters the battlefield under your control, you may attach it to target creature you control.The support of Sigarda breathed new strength into the Order of Saint Traft.Stunning Growth, 3GSorcery, RareReturn all lands from the graveyard to the battlefield tapped~